It’s always something
This pictue of my beautiful boys popped up on my computer today.
Jacob with Scooby, the dog that taught him to love dogs.
Scooby was a sweetheart but wild at the core.
He has a huge place in my heart still.
Today was one of those days.It began early, though I was blissfully unaware of the confusion in front ofthe house. A couple of days ago I emailed Jordan and Christian, reminding themthe tree trimming guys would be here between eight and nine this morning andplease have all cars out of the driveway—except my VW which has been dead forweeks and sits in the drive like a permanent piece of sculpture, albeit badsculpture. Moving the cars was complicated because we live across from anelementary school that starts classes at eight—so the car moving, school dropoff,and arrival of the really big tree company equipment all collided. Sophie and Islept on.
I had fed Soph about seven andlet her out, but I knew she would want to go again after her second breakfast.By then, however, the gates were all open—I learned my lesson about thatyesterday. She was really good, and when Jordan came to give her a shot, shewalked her on the leash. The rest of the day Sophie was good as gold, and thetree crew closed the gate for me when they went to lunch.
Meanwhile, the temperature wasslowly rising. I checked throughout the morning, hoping it would get enoughabout freezing to defrost my tankless hot water heater. That may have thawedslowly, but the faucet on the deck of the main house thawed rapidly. I’m stillnot sure I got it right, but Jordan rushed out here about one o’clock and demandedI get on our neighborhood email and ask for someone to come turn off the waterat the curb—it was, she said, gushing. I suggested she ask the tree guys whowere eating lunch in their trucks. That didn’t please her, but she did—invadingtheir lunch hour, she said—and they got it turned off. She was not exactly calmabout the whole thing. Turned out there was something broken—never did find outfor sure what—so she called the plumber, who said it would be Friday beforethey got here. I have to admit I paled at the thought of two days withoutwater, because disregarding all advice, we hadn’t prepared for it. I had a bitof extra water in the teakettle, and I think there’s a gallon jug in my closet.And that’s it.
Action shifted to the spigoton the deck, where we’d had trouble before. A pipe below the deck burst. Itdawned on me, not a happy thought, that if they turned water off at the curb, Iwouldn’t have it either—somehow I had thought, “Well, that’s their problem. Atleast I have cold water, and the can use my water.” Fooling myself.
Next I knew neighbor Jay wason the deck with Jordan. They looked and fiddled and talked for a long time—andthen went away, leaving me in suspense. Just before I napped, Jordan textedthat all was okay for the time being. I tried the hot water faucet, and it hada trickle. I went to sleep,
When I woke, I had hot water!First thing I did was wash my hair. Next thing was to ask about the pipe, andit seems Jay is going to Home Depot tomorrow and will get the needed part. Goodneighbors are priceless, and I wish the story ended there, but about six, Jay’swife texted that she thought we should know that their yard was littered withdead branches and they were throwing them all into our yard. Jay had talked tothe crew, and they assured him they would clean it up.
Finally, about 7:30 Jordan andI had a calm supper of crab cakes, salad with my favorite buttermilk dressing,and marinated cucumbers that I made today because I had cukes that needed to beused. A good end to a fretful day.
Tomorrow peace and calm.Fingers crossed. But another cold spell is due in a couple of days. It’s athing called climate change.
